Cloth covered button



CLOTH COVERED BUTTON Filed Jan. 20, 1951 INVENTOR. Morgan M. Dvell Attorney United States Patent CLOTH COVERED BUTTON Morgan V. .Duell, Oakvillc, Conn., assignor to Scovill Manufacturing Company, Waterbury, Conn., a corporation of Connecticut Application January 20,1951, Serial No. 207,024

2 Claims. (Cl. 24113) This invention relates tofbuttons adapted to be .covered with cloth or the like and particularly to .a button construction in which the covering can be removed and replaced with the same kind or a different kind of material.

It is one of the objects of this invention to provide very simple button parts that can be readily assembled together to hold a covering material in a stretched condition over a support member, such parts being of a character that the assembly can be made without the need of any tools. Thus such buttons can be made up in the homes or by dressmakers, leaving the choice of the covering material to those who are to use the covered buttons on their own garments. For this purpose a support cap or shell member of the desired shape is employed having a central attaching eye of spring material secured to its back. A disc member is provided for holding the cloth in a stretched state over the cap and held in place within the hollow of said cap by having a frictional connection with the attaching eye and also binding the covered material against the inside wall of the cap.

The full nature of this invention along with other objects and various advantages thereof will be more apparent from a consideration of the following description when read in connection with the accompanying draw- I ing, in which,

Fig. l is a side view of a button construction embodying the invention.

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view through the button taken along the line 2--2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a separated view of the parts comprising the button shown in perspective.

Fig. 4 is a view similar to Fig. 2 of a modified form of construction.

Fig. 5 is a perspective view of the holding disc member such as used in the modified form of Fig. 4.

Fig. 6 is a sectional view showing the manner in which the button may be secured to a merchandising card, and

Fig. 7 is an inside plan view of the covered cap to show the preliminary basting operation of the covering material.

In the drawing the numeral 10 refers to a support cap or shell member having a top domed section 11 terminating in a circumferential wall 12 of cylindrical shape and providing for a hollow interior 12a. Attached to the inside of the cap domed section 11 is an eye member 13. This eye member is preferably a closed wire loop made of spring wire stock so formed as to provide a pair of spaced legs 14 having an outer cross connecting end 15 of arcuate shape. The opposite free ends of the legs 14 are formed with inwardly directed sections or feet 16 preferably lying side-by-side as shown in Fig. 3, and these feet sections may be welded or otherwise made secure to the inside surface of the cap dome 11. As shown in Fig. 2 the spaced legs'14 are slightly converging relative to each other so that their outer ends as indicated by the dimension A in Fig. 2 is slightly less in 2,717,434 Patented .S pt. 13, 1955 '2 width than their inner connected ends as indicated by dimension B for reasons will appear later.

The material for covering the. button is designated by the numeral '17 and may 'be of any suitable material to suit the desires of the user. It is first cut into the shape of a disc as shown in Fig. 3 and is of a proper ,size, as indicated in Figure 2 to permit it to be stretched'over the outer surface of the dome section 11 and the circumferential wall and tucked "within the hollowpart of the shell. If desired the covering material may be temporarily held in position over the cap 10 by having 'the tuckedein portion as indicated 'by 1-8 gathered together in radial pleats and so 'heldby the basting stitch 19.

To securely hold the covering material 17 inastret'ched state over the support shell astififlat disc 20-isempl0yed having a plain circumferential edge and of a size tohave a relatively free or loose fit within the interior of the circumferential wall 12. The disc is provided with 'a central opening 21 of 'a diametrical size substantially the same as the dimension A on the wire eye member 13. As this disc member is formed inwardly along the legs 14 of the eye member 13 it will be obvious that a progressively increasing frictional engagement will result and it is this frictional engagement that is principally relied upon to hold the disc in assembled position such as shown in Fig. 2 to hold the cloth in place upon the support shell. It is also to be understood that some amount of friction or binding action will result between the circumference of the dics 20 and the inner surface of the wall 12 by reason of the interposed covering material 17 and this binding action is proportional to the thickness of the covering material employed.

A modified form of construction is shown in Figs. 4 and 5 that may be employed wherein the covering material 17a may be relatively thin material such as silk or rayon. In this case a disc 22 is provided which is formed with an ofliset rim 23 having a series of peripheral teeth 24. The outer diameter of these teeth should be dimensioned so as to have a snug fit within the inner diameter of the circumferential wall 12b. The disc 22 is provided with a central opening 25 dimensioned similar to the opening .21 of the first form so as to have a frictional fit upon the legs 14a of the eye member 13a. In all other respects the button will be made and assembled similar to the one described in the first form.

It is to be noted that the cross connecting ends 15 and and 15a of the wire eye members 13 and 13a in both forms of the invention are of arcuate shape. This is to allow for an easier degree of springiness to that part of the eye member as to permit the discs 20 or 22 to be forced over the eye end in case the hole 21 or 25 runs to a minimum tolerance and the dimension A runs toa maximum tolerance. Also, if such conditions arise the wire legs 14 and 14a may be more or less bowed inwardly as shown in the modified form of Fig. 4.

The fact that in both forms of the invention the disc can be easily assembled and removed from the eye member itself is a condition which permits the button part to be very easily attached and removed from a support card for merchandising purposes. The manner in which this may be accomplished is best shown in Fig. 6 wherein there may be employed a relatively stilf cardboard 26 having a suitable number of openings 27 dependent upon the amount of the buttons to be carried by the card. The openings 27 in the card 25 are all of a size to freely permit the eye member, for example, the eye member 13 of the form of invention shown in Figures 1, 2 and 3, to be projected therethrough to a position wherein the edge of the button wall 12 will abut one surface of the cardboard and the disc 20 may then be slipped over the protruding end of the eye 13 to lie adjacent the opposite wall of said cardboard. The frictional engagement between the eye and disc will, of course, be sufficient to hold the buttons in place on the merchandising card until such time as they are to be removed for the purpose of covering the same and put into use. It will be a simple matter to disengage the disc 20 from the eye and remove the button parts from the cardboard.

' It is, of course, obvious that minor changes and details of construction and arrangement of parts may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention as set forth in the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

l. A button construction comprising a cap member having a closed end and a circumferential wall of cylindrical shape for supporting a covering material, a wire eye member secured to the inside of said closed end, said wire eye member consisting of a pair of resilient spaced legs joined at their outer ends wth a cross member, said legs being slightly converging so that their outer ends are spaced apart slightly less than their inner attached ends,

a stifi disc member having a loose fit within said cap wall and serving to hold the covering material ofsaid button stretched over said cap, and said disc having a central aperture dimensioned to have a frictional fit upon the mid portion of the converging legs of said eye member.

2. A button construction as set forth in claim 1 wherein the eye member extends beyond the plane of the free end of the circumferential wall of said cap member, and the wall of the disc aperture has frictional engagement with the extended portion of said eye member whereby the disc can serve to removably hold the cap member upon a merchandising card. 7

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,602,975 Wolfe July 15, 1952 FOREIGN PATENTS 30,669 Germany Mar. 2, 1885 428,827 Germany May 14, 1926 590,659 France Mar. 21, 1925 197,377 Great Britain May 7, 1923 227,794 Great Britain Apr. 16, 1925 232,746

Great Britain Apr. 30, 1925 

